The present invention relates to an image filing system, and more particularly to an electronic album system suitable for use in filing image information regarding affairs of a family.
A conventional album holds images recorded on a paper. However, image information obtained by an electronic image forming apparatus such as a video apparatus constructed of a video camera, a video tape recorder and the like, an electronic still camera or the like is generally recorded on a recording medium or in some cases may be recorded on a paper. It is ideal if the image information on such a recording medium is converted into and stored as electric signals since they are free from image quality deterioration. Data recorded on a magnetic recording medium mounted within an electronic still camera will suffer a potential lowering of a record level of the data or an instant erasure of the data caused by a magnet or the like. In this case, there arises a problem associated with image retrieval. As an example of a conventional image retrieval, there is described in GB No. 2090503-A and GB No. 2089169-A a system for giving index information using a keyboard mounted on an electronic still camera.
It is important, however, for an electronic still camera to be portable so that such arrangement of inputting index information with a built-in keyboard is not practical. It is desirable for an electronic still camera to have only a mechanism which automatically gives a date of taking a photograph by using a microcomputer.
An electronic still camera is described in "An Electronic Still Camera System" by T. Tanaka et al., IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, Vol. CE-32, August 1986, pp. 345 to 353.
A video copy equipment is described in "Development of High-Definition Video Copy Equipment" by Y. Hori et al., IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, Vol. CE-32, No. 3, August 1986, pp. 283 to 288.
A handling unit for CD-ROM data is described in "A CD-ROM Data Retriever IC" by H. Farhngi et al., IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, Vol. CE-32, No. 4, November 1986, pp. 769 to 775.